Living Among the Remnants of the Dead
by ShibbeY
Summary: Jack has been living in an orphanage since he was six years old. After being abandoned by his parents he grew up to be an anti-social teenager with nothing to live for. But that ends when he sees one of the notebooks he has been fascinated about for years
1. Prologue

**Warnings:** Murder (Duh, it's DN xD), Het OC Pairing, No Official Characters.

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**Hello everyone :D**

**This is actually my first ever fan-fiction. One of my friends talked me into writing one so *tadaa***

**It takes place in North-America about 3 years after the events in the Anime. I only use OC's so sorry but no official Anime characters.**

**This is just the Prologue, introducing the main character. Chapter one is ready and will be up either tomorrow or friday :3 **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it :D**

**~Shibbey~**

**Oh yeah and lots of credits and hugs to SkittleYentl for Beta-ing and editing :3**

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**_Living Among the Remnants of the Dead_**

_Prologue_

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"They're all idiots" Jack thought to himself.

He had spent more than two hours in this class and they still couldn't produce an answer to even the simplest questions. He was lucky that his teacher was too lazy to actually contribute to the class or else he might even have to pay attention. Luckily, looking out of the window was something that could always take his mind of things.

Finally, one of the students summarized what had been said during class. His name was Jonathan, quite the douche bag. But then again, in Jacks' eyes everyone was.

After the bell rang Jack sighed: "Thank God", just loud enough for Jonathan to hear it, and Jack shot him an annoyed glare. After such a boring class Jack was hoping for a fight.

Too bad Jonathan wasn't the type to go into confrontation, because he immediately looked away and walked down the hallway as fast as he could.

Jack thought to himself: "If I was a killer... Jonathan would be the first to die"

Jack wasn't the average high school student. Most people avoided him, and he avoided them. He hated how they'd always talk about him behind his back, probably calling him emo. But well... what do you expect for wearing black every day.

However, emo probably wasn't the right word... since Jack wasn't exactly _self-_destructive.

He didn't go out of his room much, but he did have a hobby. Something most people probably wouldn't call a hobby. His room was filled with newspaper articles, murder mysteries and natural disasters. But most of his time he spent searching the internet for news about a certain incident in Japan 3 years ago...


	2. Chapter 1

**Warnings: **Murder (Duh, it's DN xD), Het OC Pairing, No Official Characters.

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**Here it is! Chapter 1 of my Death Note fic. **

**Hope you like it :D**

**Chapter 2 is being edited at the moment and is coming soon, probably this weekend :)**

**Again lots of hugs to SkittleYentl for beta-ing and overall giving me lots of help with the writing :3**

**Enjoy!**

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**_Living Among the Remnants of the Dead_**

_Chapter 1: Awakening_

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An annoying sound came from under Jacks' pillow. "Goddammit, not again..."

It was the fifth time that the alarm clock under his pillow went off this morning but he just couldn't figure out how to turn it off. Jack had the nasty habit of not being able to get out of bed in the mornings.

Normally he'd just unplug his clocks, but Shanna bought him one with batteries this time.

"I HATE THAT BITCH!" Jack yelled through the youth complex.

His parents had abandoned him when he was five, so he had been living in an apartment complex full of orphans ever since.

After he threw the clock out of his window, he noticed someone was standing in the doorway. "What do you want?" Jack growled. "We're supposed to leave in 10 minutes, or you'll be late for school… **again**_._" Said Ronald.

Ronald was probably the only person in the world Jack didn't completely despise, mostly because they had been through the exact same thing when they were kids. Ronald didn't have many friends either. Well, more than Jack anyway, but that was probably because Ronald didn't push everyone away. He looked a lot like your typical computer nerd: Short, chubby, with glasses and a face full of acne. Jack however, didn't care how he looked. Ronald was 13, four years younger and saw Jack as his older brother.

_Well if you've got to have something like __'family ties' with someone, it might as well be someone who doesn't annoy you. _Jack always thought.

"I'll be right there, go on ahead without me." Jack said, as he walked into their shared bathroom.

_I look__ like shit. _He thought, as he looked into the mirror. His hair was standing up straight, and he had always hated the colour... blonde just didn't suit him. Oh well, just a little hair gel and he looked acceptable, it's not like he had to look good for anything anyway.

Walking through the complex was a nightmare for Jack. "Why the hell did they have to paint friggin' polar bears on the walls?" He said to himself.

Shanna was chasing him through the hallways, screaming Jacks' name, and when Jack turned around, he saw her incredibly happy face.

Even though Shanna was only a few months older than Jack, she had been taking care of him since they were 10 years old. Her parents were the owners of the orphanage, where they lived, so Jack had known her ever since he first arrived there.

In many ways, Shanna was the exact opposite of Jack; she always had a smile on her face, and whatever happened, no one had ever seen her cry.

Even though Jack hadn't been the nicest person to her in the past few years, Shanna had always been nice to him. So nice, that some people actually thought they were a couple. Still, Jack hated the idea of him and Shanna being a couple. Not that she was ugly, far from that actually. She was slim, not especially tall, had a very light skin and beautiful bright green eyes.

One of the things about Shanna that annoyed Jack the most, was the way she was always playing with her hair. She had long curly brown locks and it took all of Jacks' strength not to slap her hand away as soon as she started to twirl it around her finger.

"KEYS!" She shouted with a huge smile on her face, "Time to check your room again!"

"Jeez, no need to shout… I'm right here." Jack sighed.

For some reason the guidance counsellors in the orphanage thought Jack was a danger to himself so his room had to be checked every day. Next to that, Jack could see Shanna had already brought a new alarm clock for tomorrow.

"Aahw don't be so grumpy Jack!" Shanna said. Jacks' frown deepened and he growled: "It's friggin' 7 in the morning." And walked away as he threw her the keys.

Even though he was going to be late for class, Jack still decided to walk to school, since he hated taking the bus. The one at 7:30am was always cramped with people, and he hated crowded spaces. Walking also had its upsides, since he could quietly listen to the music on his iPod, so his mind wouldn't be swarming with thoughts.

Just as he walked around a tight corner in the middle of the city, someone ran into him. The boy fell, and books were littered all over the sidewalk.

It was Jonathan. Even though Jack couldn't see his face, he immediately recognized him by his overly-fancy coat and short styled black hair. Normally Jack would never help him pick up his books, but in the pile of paper he recognized something. A black notebook with red letters only slightly appeared from under some old homework.

_No… it couldn't be__._ Jack thought.

Jonathan stuffed everything back in his bag as fast as he could and Jack could see the sweat on his forehead.

Thoughts raced through Jack's head. _Is it real? How do I know it is? And if it's real, what should I do?_ Probably the smartest thing to do was ignore it for now and pretend he didn't notice. If it wasn't real there was nothing to worry about, and if it was… There was no telling what Jonathan was planning with it. But he could always find out if it was real later.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked. "Aren't you supposed to go to school too?"

Jonathan looked at him in disbelief. This was actually the first time Jack ever said anything normal to him. "Something happened at home, I'm in a hurry." He replied.

"Oh, well… sorry for running into you anyway." Jack said. Normally he would never apologise, but if Jonathan really had a Death Note, things were already not looking too well for Jack.

Jonathan and Jack used to be 'friends', until Jonathan replaced Jack's friendship with books last year. For someone who only had a few friends, losing Jonathan's friendship didn't go well with Jack. Slowly he started hating Jonathan, because he was completely shut out of Jonathan's life. And because of that Jack started treating Jonathan as garbage, and the hatred became mutual.

"Its okay," Jonathan said, "it was really my fault anyway." He still looked as if he thought _did Jack just apologize to me? _And then he ran off.

Jack still couldn't believe what he just saw. He had to find out if it was real, because Jonathan could just as well write Jacks' name down if he wanted.

The image of the note kept haunting Jack the entire day. Luckily for him, nobody was keeping him from daydreaming as usual. Without Jonathan the rest of the class stopped working completely.

For the entire length of the class the teacher had been chewing on his fingernails and now it was starting to annoy Jack… Two bullies were throwing a kid's bag through the classroom. _Jeez, what are we? Five?_ Jack thought.

He looked at the clock, "One more hour… then I can leave this hell behind for the weekend," he said, thinking nobody would hear him because of all the noise.

Mia, who was sitting in front of him, turned around and smiled at him.

"I thought you were goth" Jack said to her.

"I am… why?" Mia responded while she cocked her eyebrow.

"Goths aren't supposed to laugh" Jack said without showing any emotion.

Mia thought he was joking and laughed.

_What's wrong with the world if you can't even __hurt people's feelings anymore?_ Jack thought to himself.

"Then you're a goth too, I've never seen you laugh the entire year." Mia teased.

Well… it was true, Jack never really laughed, especially in school. He looked like a Goth too, with his long hair in front of his bright blue eyes. Even though physically he could easily fit in with the jocks. He didn't have a 'six-pack' though, but he was still thankful he didn't have what Ronald had dubbed 'a keg'. _But Ronald's just fat_. Jack thought and a small smile appeared on his face.

Luckily Mia had already turned back around so she didn't see his face. Jack hated showing his emotions, it made him feel weak.

He didn't feel like walking back to the orphanage at all, so Jack just wandered through the city.

Ronald still had class for another hour and Shanna was probably busy cleaning the orphanage so nobody would miss him. He needed some time to think.

Jack knew almost everything there was to know about the notebooks. Apparently they were accompanied by a Death God, or 'Shinigami' an entity that normally couldn't be seen by anyone. The person whose name was written in the notebook would die, hence the name **Death**Note.

But there was one thing Jack didn't understand. If it was real, why hadn't Jonathan killed him yet? Was it because Jonathan still liked Jack? Or was he just weak?

"No, Jonathan definitely hates me enough," Jack said with a smile. He probably said it a bit loud because some people walking by gave him weird looks. _It has to be fake,_ Jack thought. _Or else I would have been long dead. _Jack shrugged off his thoughts and started walking home. He could really use some time with Ronald this afternoon, 'cause people had been pissing him off all day.

When Jack finally made it through the busiest streets he checked his watch. Ronald and Shanna were probably worried since he should have been back two hours ago.

The orphanage was a rather big building, it used to be a normal apartment complex but people didn't want to live there since it was built in the suburbs of the city, near the industrial zone. But because it was so big, Jack could always see it from miles away. It was already November and pretty cold, so Jack started running the last few streets.

Completely out of breath he arrived at the front of the building. While he walked by the fence he could see someone sitting on the steps outside, in the cold. After he passed the main gate he could see who it was…

It was Shanna, and she was crying…


	3. Chapter 2

**Warnings: **Murder, Het OC Pairing, No official characters.

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**Hiya everyone! :D**

**Here's chapter 2, I had a lot of fun writing the interaction between the characters and introduced a little more humor than in the previous chapter.**

**Chapter 3 is in progress, had to find a balance between school and writing but I'll try to finish it as soon as possible :3**

**Let me know how you like the story so far! 'Cause I could really use some feedback. **

**And again lots of thanks to SkittleYentl :D**

**~Shibbey~**

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**_Living Among the Remnants of the Dead_**

_Chapter 2: The cold hand of Death._

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Jack had never been in this room before. In contrast to the rest of the building it was quite normal. There was just a table and a few chairs in the middle of the room. A fridge stood in the corner and a magnetic board loaded with children's drawings was nailed to the wall. They were in the living room of the orphanage supervisors.

Michael, the oldest of the supervisors and Shanna's half-brother, was talking to two police officers on the other side of the room. It was a big room, so Jack couldn't hear exactly what they were saying.

Joanne and Richard were sitting at the table, listening to the conversation. Shanna and Jack were standing near the door; Shanna couldn't explain what happened because she kept crying, so Jack was still confused. _Why was he the only one here, next to the supervisors? And what were the police officers doing here?_

Finally one of the officers started walking towards Jack and Shanna. "We thought you might want to hear this first, since you were one of his best friends..." The officer paused briefly when Shanna started crying again. "An hour ago, just after he left school," he continued. "Ronald Maesfeldt died in a traffic accident..."

Jack froze, as he repeated the sentence in his head. _Ronald... Died?_ Shanna put her head on Jack's shoulder and grabbed his hand.

The police officer explained: "Around 3pm Ronald left the school and crossed the street. A drunk driver failed to notice him and hit Ronald at full speed, he died on impact and there was nothing the paramedics could do... I'm sorry."

Jacks' head filled with anger. He just lost his best friend and he said he was 'sorry'? But even though he was so angry, the words ringing in his ears kept him speechless.

"Do you want to go see him?" Michael asked.

Michael was around thirty years old, Jack didn't know his exact age, but that was his best guess. They never really spoke to each other much, even though Michael was a nice guy.

Jack and Shanna sat in the back of the car as they were driving to the hospital.

Jack looked at Shanna and saw that she had stopped crying, but now she was simply staring out the window without saying a word. Not that he had said so much as a word himself.

"Why did it have to be Ronald?" Jack asked with a trembling voice.

Shanna looked at him but didn't say a thing.

"Life isn't fair" Michael said as he looked through the rear-view mirror. "Ronald had a lot to live for, and it's not fair that he was killed so soon."

Those words weren't comforting to him at all, Jack only felt more enraged by it.

When they entered the hospital Shanna grabbed Jack's hand and Michael put his hand on Jack's shoulder. For the first time in years Jack couldn't hold back his tears.

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It had only been slightly more than a week since Ronald died but to Jack it felt like everyone had already forgotten him. A lot of things had changed though; Michael started coming around to Jack's room every now and then, and Jack and Shanna talked a lot more.

To be honest, Jack didn't really mind. Michael was like an older brother to Jack now, and even though Jack normally needed a lot of time to connect with people, he already started to like Michael.

Shanna was pretty much her happy self again, even though everyone could notice she wasn't as happy as she pretended to be. Ronald had left a huge hole in the lives of all three, but the rest of the orphanage really didn't seem to care and that pissed Jack off.

When Jack was walking to school again he saw Jonathan further down the street. Normally Jack would keep his distance so he wouldn't have to start an awkward conversation, but this time he decided to catch up with him. Becoming friends with Jonathan again would probably help if Jack ever wanted to find out what that black notebook really was.

"Hey, wait up!'' Jack shouted.

Jonathan turned around and looked surprised. "I haven't seen you all week," he said.

"Well, I just couldn't bring myself to go to school yet.'' Jack answered.

"Oh... yeah, I heard about Ronald. It must have been terrible.''

They continued talking on their way to school, and surprisingly Jack kind of enjoyed it. He kept it friendly for now, avoided bringing up the notebook and casually walked with him.

During class Jack's mind kept wandering again. He hadn't thought about the notebook ever since Ronald died, but walking to school with Jonathan brought it all back. The first time Jack saw it, Jonathan was carrying it in his schoolbag. _If I could only get him away from his bag for a while I could take a look…_

It didn't take long for Jack to come up with a plan; Jonathan couldn't swim, so he had swimming classes immediately after school every Tuesday. There was no way he would go back home just to drop off his bag, so he would probably have it with him, or leave it in his locker at school. _The first thing to do is find out where he leaves it._

Jack was startled by the sound of moving chairs when everyone in his class got up and started leaving the room. He then noticed that he had been staring at Jonathan's bag the whole time. Jonathan had obviously noticed, since he was looking at Jack with a cocked eyebrow.

_How do I know if it's real?_ Jack thought as he ran home. _I know I've read it somewhere._ He kept thinking about a certain article that said something about a 'shinigami.' Now Jack wasn't exactly an expert in Japanese, more precisely he didn't speak Japanese at all aside from the standard words like 'arigato' and 'banzai' he had picked up watching movies.

"Oh, hi Jack!" Shanna shouted from the other end of the hallway when Jack ran through the front door of the orphanage.

_How the hell did she __recognize me so fast from all the way over there?_ Jack thought. He didn't have time for her right now so he ran up to his room immediately. As he arrived at his door he felt in his pocket… it was empty.

"Dammit!" Jack yelled. "Shanna still has my keys."

When he walked back to the staircase, he saw Shanna leaning against a wall one floor down, with a giant smile on her face. "Forgot something?" She teased as she held Jacks' keys in her hand.

"Give me my keys." Jack growled while holding up his hand.

"Oh aren't we grumpy again, you forgot the magic word." Shanna answered as she walked up to Jack's floor.

"Give me my keys, please?" Jack said with a frown on his face.

"You'll have to catch me first!" she yelled, and she suddenly ran off.

"I don't have time for childish games!" Jack yelled as he ran after her through countless hallways. _Jeez, when does she ever get tired?_ He thought.

When they ran back down to the bottom floor Jack finally caught up with her and he quickly tackled Shanna.

"I'm not giving you anything!" Shanna yelled as she was rolling around the floor laughing.

Michael opened the door of his office and looked into the hallway where he saw Shanna on the floor struggling to keep Jack from getting his keys.

He lifted one eyebrow and said: "Shanna… could you please keep it down? If anybody hears you they're going to think you're crazy."

Neither Shanna nor Jack looked up as they continued to fight while Shanna kept screaming and laughing.

"I guess it's already too late for that." He said to himself as he looked into the other end of the hallway and saw that half of the people on the bottom floor were staring at the two idiots on the ground.

"I've got 'em!" Jack yelled and he jumped back to his feet with the keys in his hand. His happiness suddenly faded when he saw everyone staring at him, so he awkwardly walked away with a fast pace.

"That was the first time I saw a smile on his face" Michael grinned as he helped Shanna up.

Back in his room Jack suddenly remembered what he had to look for. "Shinigami, shinigami, shinigami." He kept saying to himself as he went through the piles of articles on his desk.

Then he heard a voice behind him: "Shini-what?"

Jack quickly turned around. "Mia? What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in here? And how the hell did you even know where I live?"

Mia pointed towards the door of Jacks' room. "Your door was open… and to be honest, I followed you here."

"Go away." Jack said with a straight face. "The fact that you followed me home is creepy enough, and sneaking up on me like that isn't exactly making it better." Jack gave her an angry face. _I don't have time for this._ He thought.

Mia looked surprised; at least Jack thought that was her surprised face. It was hard to see through all that black make-up.

"Wow, I didn't know you were such a prick. I yelled a few times on your way here because you dropped your phone but you didn't hear me."

Jack stayed silent for a moment. "Oh…" He tried to apologize but that all he could say.

"You're welcome." Mia said. She put Jacks' phone on his desk and walked away.

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend." Someone laughed from behind Jacks' half-closed door. He didn't have to turn around to know it was Shanna who was teasing him.

"Would everyone please just leave me alone?" He shouted, and without turning around he kicked his door shut.

After fifteen minutes of searching his room he had found the articles he was looking for. He was sitting on his bed with his laptop trying to learn as much as he could. "I have to find out if that notebook is real tomorrow…"


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